Fishbowl is inventory and manufacturing software used by small and mid-sized manufacturers and distributors, often alongside QuickBooks. It tracks parts across locations, manages purchase orders and sales orders, builds products from bills of materials, and keeps serial and lot numbers. In many plants it is also where maintenance spares sit, next to raw materials.
Finding a spare part fast is harder than it should be. The technician at the machine knows what they need but not the part number, and checking stock means walking to a terminal or calling the stores. An AI agent connected through Agentic CMMS can search Fishbowl from wherever the technician is, and tell them if the part exists, where it is and what is on order.
What your AI agent can do with Fishbowl
- Find a part by description. "Do we have a 24 V proximity sensor in stock, and which location is it in?"
- Check reorder points. "Which maintenance spares are below their reorder point right now?"
- See what is on order. "Is there an open purchase order for the hydraulic hoses for Press 3, and when is it due?"
- Draft a purchase order. "Create a PO to Midland Bearings for ten 6206 bearings and four oil seals."
- Trace a serial number. "Which serial number of the spare gearbox did we take out of stock in August?"
- Review usage. "How many V-belts did we use in the last three months?"
- Look up a bill of materials. "What parts are in the BOM for the replacement filter assembly?"
Fishbowl with your other systems
Spares in Fishbowl only matter because of the machines they keep running.
- For each open work order in Limble CMMS or Hippo CMMS, check whether its parts are on the shelf in Fishbowl.
- When Tractian flags a bearing fault, confirm the replacement bearing is in stock before the job is scheduled.
- Compare the value of spares in Fishbowl with the inventory accounts in QuickBooks Desktop.
- Find spares that have not moved in two years and check their book value in QuickBooks Online before you write them down.
Spares stores in a small plant
In a smaller plant there is rarely a dedicated stores team. Parts sit in Fishbowl next to production stock, and the person who knows where things are is often on another shift. The agent gives every technician the same answer at any hour, and buyers get earlier warning when critical spares run low.
Location tracking in Fishbowl makes this especially useful. If a part sits in another warehouse or building, the agent says so, which saves a wasted trip across the site and shows when a transfer is the faster option.
Each person approves their own agent with read-only or read and write access. Owners and admins choose which roles may create purchase orders, and every call is stored in the activity log.